The New Hungry

Posted on April 30, 2018 by heatherfromthegrove

“I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for the minds and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are being told that here, in the United States, we are “in an economic recovery.”

Really?

That’s not what the folks working at the soup kitchens, food banks, and shelters are saying. The number of people coping with food insecurity is not decreasing. Quite the opposite. College-educated, middle-class men and women are now very much a part of the “hungry” demographic in our society. I know them. Hell, I’ve written about them. They are real people, not fictional characters. Their stories are not embellished. These are true accounts of their descent into a state of existence that is not only a new and unsettling experience for them, but also one that doesn’t have a frame of reference. Imagine, for a moment, what this must feel like. When you’ve never been poor or hungry… and suddenly you are. How do you wrap your mind around it? What are your coping mechanisms? More importantly, how do you get yourself out of this rut? Before making a snap judgment, understand that there is no Dr. Phil quick-fix, one-size-fits-all solution.

We are being told that the economic crisis in Europe is over.

Really?

Let’s look at Greece, for example. In an article from The Guardian, journalist Helena Smith writes “Against a backdrop of record unemployment, and with the country ensnared in its worst crisis in modern times, hardship is surfacing in ways that few would ever have foreseen. Hunger and undernourishment are part of that spectre.” Xenia Papastavrou, director of Boroume (the leading food bank organization in Greece), was quoted as saying “In traditional middle-class neighborhoods like Zographou, the number of those requiring support has gone up from 50 to 500 since 2011.”

It would appear that the “new faces of hungry” is a global issue.

It would appear that the there will be no “Hallelujahs” in our immediate economic future.

I wish I could tell a different story. Believe me, I do. But, I can’t. This is the reality. You can choose to put your fingers in your ears and chant “lalalalalalala”… but that won’t change the reality, I’m afraid.

The question then becomes “what can we do?”

I can’t answer that for you. But I can tell you what I’m doing. Damage control. People can’t think or function properly when they’re hungry. So, my immediate reaction is to help people who are experiencing hunger, probably for the first time in their lives.

Kindness. Pass it on.

Why this upcoming presidential election is so important

Posted on April 30, 2016 by heatherfromthegrove

Access to higher education is a right, not a privilege.

“I think everybody is in agreement that we are a great entrepreneurial nation. We have got to encourage that. Of course we have to support small and medium-sized businesses, the backbone of our economy, but we have to makes sure that every family in this country gets a fair shake.”– Senator Bernie Sanders

It is time for change, people. We need to move away from the status quo. The state of the union, as it stands right now, simply isn’t working for most of us. “Most of us” are the Middle Class in America, a class that is still reeling from the aftershocks of the largest economic crisis since The Great Depression of 1929.

“The American people must make a fundamental decision. Do we continue the 40-year decline of our middle class and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, or do we fight for a progressive economic agenda that creates jobs, raises wages, protects the environment and provides health care for all? Are we prepared to take on the enormous economic and political power of the billionaire class, or do we continue to slide into economic and political oligarchy? These are the most important questions of our time, and how we answer them will determine the future of our country.” – from the website of Senator Bernie Sanders

In the upcoming second edition of my book, Casualties of the (Recession) Depression, I address all of the socio-economic problems still facing this country – years after the so-called “Great Recession” supposedly ended. But with every problem, there is a solution.

It all starts with the economy. We need to stop outsourcing work to other countries and support our own workforce. We need to raise the minimum wage. Healthcare and education should not be considered privileges awarded to only those who can afford them. They are basic rights that we, each of us, should expect to have access to…. without losing the shirt off our backs.

The upcoming presidential election will give the American people the opportunity to effect real change. I hope that they will vote intelligently, and not emotionally. I also hope that people will do their research. This is an important election. Apathy is not an option.

You know where I stand.

Coming soon!

FrontCover

The Economic Crisis Through The Eyes Of A Child

Posted on September 27, 2014 by heatherfromthegrove

The Second Edition of Casualties of the (Recession) Depression will be coming out late Fall – complete with new and updated socio-economic statistics, additional vignettes and chapters, and sporting a new cover.

This series of vignettes depicts the many faces of the Recession (really a 21st century depression). These are the firsthand account stories of real people. Their names have been replaced by the generic “he” – “she” – “they” … both to protect their privacy and also to bring home the point that it could happen to anyone, including you or me. In the context of this book, the objective was to record real, and sometimes raw, moments experienced by people who have been adversely affected by this long economic downturn. By capturing these brief episodes and providing a written backdrop for each year – in the form of an economic and political commentary– the reader can see the transformation and progression of this (Recession) Depression from its conception to its continued existence in the present day.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

VIGNETTE: Through the Eyes of a Child

She skittered behind the stairwell and sat down. With her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, she watched through the space between the stairs. Her long ash blonde hair cascaded around her like a shawl. Her clear, blue eyes were wide and close to tears. The lady who lived next door was talking with her mother and as they passed by the stairs, the lady spotted her and smiled. She put her finger up to her nose silently. The lady understood and didn’t tell her mother that she was hiding under the stairs. They went into the next room.

She hadn’t seen her father all morning. The night before, her parents had a terrible fight. They were always fighting. But last night was the worst. They had been yelling at one another and then she heard her mother crying. She had buried her face in the pillow, to block out the sounds. After awhile, everything went quiet. From her bedroom window, she heard a noise on the back porch. She looked out and down, towards the porch, and saw that her father was sitting on the steps. She wiggled out of bed and tip-toed downstairs. She opened the screen door just enough so that she could see him better. He was bent over with his hands around his head. He was making a sound that she had never heard before. Daddy was crying! She had never seen her Daddy cry before. Things must be terribly wrong. Her heart started beating fast. She covered her mouth to stifle a cry. Quietly, she closed the door and went back upstairs to her room. She cried herself to sleep.

This morning, her mother told her to stay out of the way because men were coming to take all their furniture and things away. She didn’t understand why. There were four of them. Big and sweaty, they were taking things out of the house. Nobody noticed her behind the stairwell. She saw them take her princess canopy bed away. Her mouth began to tremble and she bit her lip, to keep from crying. A big man with no hair came out of her playroom, carrying her toy box and on top of the box was her favorite American Girl^®Doll, Caroline. Caroline had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like her. She gasped. The big man heard her. He turned around and bent down slightly, squinting his eyes. Then, he spotted her. He saw her staring at the doll on top of the box that he was carrying. He started to turn away towards the front door, but her tear-stained face and big blue eyes stopped him. He looked around. No one else was in sight, or so he thought. Quickly, he grabbed the doll and slid it under the stairs. He put his fingers to his lips, “Shhh…” and gave her a wink. Then he was gone. She grinned from ear to ear and clutched Caroline to her chest.

She heard a noise and looked up. The lady next door extended her hand. She put her hand in the neighbor’s and, holding Caroline tightly, she got up from under the stairs. The lady called out to her mother and said that she would take her (and Caroline) next door for some tea and cake. She and the lady had always enjoyed their little tea parties together. She would miss the kind lady when they moved.

As they left the house, she saw the man with no hair. She gave him a shy smile and he looked at her. His eyes were soft and wet. “Maybe he’s coming down with a cold,” she thought.

Copyright © 2013-2014 by Heather Joan Marinos

All rights reserved.

When hunger hits close to home… what would you do?

Posted on January 15, 2014 by heatherfromthegrove

“America is the richest country in the world. And yet tonight, thousands of your neighbors will go to bed hungry.
It may be your child’s schoolmate who is undernourished and has difficulty learning on an empty stomach.
Or it could be a co-worker, a working mother whose low-wage job doesn’t make ends meet.
Perhaps it’s an elderly neighbor who has to make a decision whether to delay filling a prescription or buying groceries.
The faces of hunger are as broad as the faces of America.”
~ David Nasby, General Mills

How many of us (and our families) could survive on $30 per week?
If we knew a family member, friend or neighbor who was starving, would we give him (or her, or their family) food?
Would we even notice the signs, or would we wait for them to have to swallow their pride and ask?
Some soul-searching questions, indeed.

Sometimes, the only way to fully understand the gravity and indignity of hunger is to walk in a hungry person’s shoes. A very interesting experiment that would be, wouldn’t it?

Want a dose of wisdom? Talk to a taxi driver.

Posted on September 5, 2013 by heatherfromthegrove

Over the years, I’ve had some highly entertaining and very informative conversations with taxi drivers. If you ever want a spot-on gage (or gauge) of current socio-economic issues and seer-like accurate predictions of future events, speak to a taxi driver. These guys (although there are female cab drivers, it is still a male-dominated field of work) will always tell it like it is, without frills or any long-winded speeches.

In an election year, forget what the polls say. Ask a cabbie, and he’ll tell you who will win. He will usually be right.

Want to know how bad (or good) the economy really is? Speak to a taxi driver. He will filter out all the marketing rhetoric that the political pundits are espousing. He will refute many economists (particularly the ones who back up the politicians) as they predict current and future economic trends.

Taxi driver wisdom is not unique to the United States. Take a cab in any city or suburb in Canada, in Europe, or indeed anywhere in the world… and you will be a captive audience of one – a student in the University of Reality.

Before you laugh and shake your head in disbelief, I tell you that what I say is true. I’ve “attended” many such “class lectures” – from Dublin and London to Paris and Berlin, from Vancouver (British Columbia) to Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island), and in at least 35 states right here, in America.

I will tell you the latest “word on the street.” Recently, I phoned my favorite taxi driver (Martin), to wish him a happy birthday (he and I were born in the same year). I’ve known Martin for 15 years and he has become a dear friend. After all the birthday wishes and catching up on each other’s news, I asked him the million-dollar question:

“So what do you think, Martin… are we in an economic recovery… as we’ve been told?”

He laughed mirthlessly and said:

“Are you kidding me? Maybe the country club folks think that this is a recovery. They are not feeling the pinch. The middle class is. People are still struggling to make ends meet. Even my regular corporate customers are traveling minimally, taking no more than one or two business trips each quarter.”

I asked one last question:

“Is there an economic recovery in sight, perhaps in 2014?”

With a sigh, he said:

“Yes, probably towards the middle or end of 2014…. but it won’t be the recovery that we’ve all been praying for. It will be a weak recovery. But, at least it will be a little better than it is now.”

From your lips to God’s ears, Martin.

So, there you have it. Taxi driver wisdom.

We’ll see how everything pans out.

From Aug 14-Sept 7, purchase a copy of Casualties of the (Recession) Depression, and for every $20 book purchased directly from me, through my website, I will be donating $5 from the proceeds of each book sale to either: Feeding America (US), Action Against Hunger (Canada), or The World Food Programme (Global). The purchaser chooses one of the three. As I’ve stated before and clearly state on my website, this promotion does not apply to books purchased from third party distributors, such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Plan B. Why we should always have one handy.

Posted on September 3, 2013 by heatherfromthegrove

“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”

Of course, in reality it’s not always that simple.

When we shrug our shoulders and “let the chips fall where they may” – without any forethought or plan – we can’t really control the consequences. This is reactive thinking. And, nine out of ten times, we always regret not having planned ahead.

We are human. We make mistakes. We play the odds and miscalculate the results. Sometimes, our innate optimism clouds our thinking and we realize it only too late. And then the unimaginable suddenly becomes very imaginable, very real.

This happened to many middle-class men and women who were unprepared for such a severe and prolonged economic downturn. Jobs were downsized or eliminated. Savings dwindled. Credit card debt soared. Health insurance policies were suspended. Homes foreclosed. Food became a luxury.

In hindsight, what could we have done to prevent this from happening?

None of us expected this economic crisis to last so long, but it did. That was out of our control.

We did, however, have control over how much we spent, how much we consumed, and whether or not we chose to live within our means. Many of us who were not proactive are now chanting “mea culpa, mea culpa.”

Let’s look at each of the problem areas:

(1) Jobs. No job (full-time, part-time, or consultant) is secure. Even a loyal employee, working 25 years in the same company, can get a pink slip…. just like that. It’s important to keep skills honed, stay educated, and cultivate multiple optional career paths/opportunities. When we have back-up options, we are able to counteract the fallout from job loss.

(2) Savings. We must try not to succumb to the mentality of “immediate gratification.” This is a common problem in today’s society. The generation of men and women who lived through the Great Depression would probably be rolling their eyes and shaking their heads at us. We should take our cue from them and exercise a little frugality and self-discipline. Save a portion of each check and don’t touch it unless absolutely necessary. Make sound investments. “Get Rich Quick” schemes are just that: schemes. As my mother used to tell me, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

(3) Credit Cards. Ideally, we should only use debit cards. Credit cards should be used only on the condition that we pay them off (in full) each month. If we can’t do that, we are buying trouble by digging ourselves into debt. Stay in the black, not the red.

(4) A Roof Over Our Head. Here’s the unsettling reality: if we have a mortgage, we don’t own our home. The bank does. If we can’t pay the mortgage, the bank will take “our home” away from us. We own our home only when we’ve paid the entire loan off. This usually tales years, even decades. The good news is that eventually, we do own our home outright… if we play our cards right. Here’s the caveat: if we choose to get a second mortgage or an equity loan because we want to add a room or renovate a kitchen, then we drive ourselves deeper into debt… making that dream of full home ownership a more distant reality.

(5) Food. Eat wisely. Don’t waste. Be sustainable. Buy fruit trees and grow vegetables… then there will always be food – even when money is scarce.

Remember the adage: “Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.”

If we follow this simple advice, we may not overcome all of our problems, but we will definitely be on a stronger footing.

Righting a wrong

Posted on September 1, 2013 by heatherfromthegrove

“He looked at the piles of food again, and it was like he was seeing it with new eyes. “This is wrong”, he thought, “Letting food rot while people die of hunger. It’s evil.”….
He breathed in the too-sweet smell of rotting food, “I can stop this evil.”

― Margaret Peterson Haddix, Among the Enemy

Image via tillhecomes.org.

Food insecurity around the world

Posted on August 29, 2013 by heatherfromthegrove

“Those who wish for a more peaceful, just and sustainable world are helping to make ending world hunger a major priority… Together we can end hunger.”

— Robert Alan Silverstein

That we, as a global community, could end world hunger is not a naïve notion. No, it is not as far-fetched as it seems, despite the daunting numbers and the amount of time, effort and resources needed to accomplish such a gargantuan task. As with any challenge of great magnitude, the reasonable approach is (and has been) to compartmentalize the problem into smaller, more manageable components. Since the whole is equal to (not lesser than or greater than ) the sum of its parts, each “part” (and, by extension, each of the subparts, and sub-subparts) can be (and have been) uniquely addressed. In this instance, the “parts” refer, of course, to the continents; the “subparts” are the countries, and “sub-subparts” are the cities, counties or communities. If it sounds simple enough, experience has taught us that the real bottleneck lies in the allocation and acquisition of the “time, effort and resources” required to eradicate the problem. Just how big a problem is it?

The Numbers:

According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization:

In 2010-2012, estimated that nearly 870 million people throughout the world (that’s one in eight people) suffer from chronic undernourishment and food insecurity.
an estimated 852 million live in developing countries; 16 million live in developed countries.
Asia and Pacific region: saw a 30% decrease (from 739M to 563M) in the number of undernourished people – due to socio-economic progress. <heatherfromthegrove: I believe that these numbers may increase by next year, as the recession makes its hasty way to Asia>
Latin America and the Caribbean: also saw a decrease, from 65M (1990-92) to 49M hungry (2010-2012).
Africa: by sharp contrast, saw a huge increase, from 175M to 239M hungry (one in four people are hungry).
In developed countries, the number increased from 13M (2004-6) to 16M (2010-12).

The Causes:

According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, there are five (5) principle causes of hunger:

Poverty.
Harmful/unstable economic and political systems.
Conflict (the influx of refugees from unstable, conflict-ridden regimes/countries).
Hunger (hunger causes physical and mental health issues which, in turn, bring on poverty – due to the inability to work or function properly; and this creates greater hunger).
Climate Change (drought, flooding, erratic climate patterns).

The Solutions:

According to Josette Sheeran, formerly the Executive Director (until her term ended in 2012) of the UN World Food Programme and now the Vice Chairman of the World Economic Forum, there are ten new approaches to eradicating world hunger:

Humanitarian action.
Provide free school meals.
Safety nets (for when disaster strikes or a food crisis occurs).
Connect farmers to markets.
Special focus on providing children under two years old with proper nutrition, to help them develop properly and give them fighting chance.
Empower women.
Technology is a powerful tool.
Building resiliency… against national disasters.
People power (individuals, partners, organizations, communities)
Accountability (countries’ political leaders make it their mission to ensure that no child (in their country) will die from hunger.

For a more comprehensive understanding of world hunger, please refer to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012.

Ending world hunger… an impossible dream, or an attainable reality?

You know where I stand.

From Aug 14-Sept 7, purchase a copy of Casualties of the (Recession) Depression, and for every $20 book purchased directly from my website, I will be donating $5 from the proceeds of each book sale to either: Feeding America (US), Action Against Hunger (Canada), or The World Food Programme (Global). The purchaser chooses one of the three.

Image via blog.igt.com.

A tribute to the unsung heroes who help others

Posted on August 26, 2013 by heatherfromthegrove

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

— Mother Teresa

They don’t have the power of money or celebrity to back them up. Nor do they receive any payment or compensation for what they do. Self-gratification is not their ulterior motive.

They are simply ordinary people who do extraordinary things… to help others − for no other reason than love and respect for humanity.

These are the people who…

… save their leftover food from their restaurant meal, so they may give it to the person standing outside… that hungry person who’s seen better times but who, for one reason or another, finds himself down and out.

… volunteer their time to work in community outreach programs.

… make daily visits to elderly neighbors who live alone, just to make sure that they are okay and to give them a little caregiving and companionship.

… regularly help out at the food banks and missions.

… notice that an exhausted single mother, trying to do it all, may need a little assistance with carpooling, babysitting, or a few ready-made meals that she can freeze and reheat later.

… sense that a friend may be going through hard times, and invite him/her over for dinner each week.

… teach their children kindness and empathy towards others.

The list is endless.

These are the people who, although not labeled as “activists”, are quietly making a difference in the lives of others.

One person at a time.

Image (of hands) via mysuccessprinciples.com.

Can we make a difference?

Posted on August 20, 2013 by heatherfromthegrove

“The lessons of the nation’s past tell us that liberty and justice cannot be secured for ourselves and kept from others without turning sour. Because we have cherished liberty for others, this country has sacrificed enormously (if not always wisely) in lives and material resources. We have not cherished justice as much. But justice and equality are no less a part of the nation’s ideals, and we build on them by exercising them in our relationship with others. When we are rich and others are hungry or impoverished beyond description, justice calls for ending this imbalance.”

— Art Simon, Founder – Bread for the World

Image (b/w of three children) via blogs.dallasobserver.com.

heatherfromthegrove

a writer's musings…

Tag Archives: economy